Bio

I was born in 1966 in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, from a Spanish father and Dutch mother.

After school I studied psychology and philosophy. The first two years of my studies took place at the University of Nijmegen. In the third year I went to Utrecht University where I continued my psychology, specializing in theoretical psychology, with the subjects of animal consciousness and animal cognition as my main subjects of interest. With philosophy I moved to the University of Amsterdam, where I specialized in ethics, with a focus on animal ethics.

As part of my psychology studies I spent the Summer of 1993 at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute (CHCI) of Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington State. This was the place where Washoe lived, the first chimpanzee who was taught signs from humans, together with four other signing chimpanzees: Moja, Tatu, Dar, and Loulis. I studied the research that was taking place at the CHCI on the use of signs by these chimpanzees and took part in taking care for the chimpanzees. It was quite miraculous to have these chimpanzees coming up to you and seeing them sign to you.

In 1994 I started a Ph.D. program at the Philosophy Department of Nijmegen University, in which I was going to investigate in what way new knowledge could be obtained about the emotions and thoughts of apes, by examining their use of human taught signs closely. In the following years I paid many working visits to the USA, where I had contact with Roger and Deborah Fouts from the CHCI; as well as with Lyn Miles in Atlanta, Georgia, who had taught signs to the orangutan Chantek at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga; and with Penny Patterson of the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, California, who had studied the use of signs by the gorilla Koko and others. Eventually I did a thorough study of the use of signs by the CHCI chimpanzees in the period 1992-1999. After analysis of the data I wrote my dissertation, which I defended in April 2003, when I got my doctoral degree.

Having tried several jobs after this, I recently decided to try and make a living by giving lectures and courses on the subjects of my speciality.

I live in Amsterdam and have a great boyfriend, whose name is Eric.

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4 responses to “Bio”

Hallo Steban,
Found your paper at Academia.edu ! I am very curious about your current opinions on ape language research. By the way, I also encountered
interesting research about Prairie dogs. One researcher, Slobodchicoff, claims they have the most complicated animal ‘language’ apart from humans. See, for example http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=108412#. In the future, I would like to hear your opinion on this !!! Kind regards, Pouwel

Hello Pouwel,
Thank you for your comment. I will write more later about my current opinions on language reserach with nonhuman animals. This Wednesday, February 3, there will be a programme fully dedicated to the research by Slobodchikoff on the communication of prairie dogs. It is broadcast on BBC2, as part of the Natural World series and starts at 21:00 (our time).

On Thursday April 9, 2015 a 1-day symposium will be held at Maastricht University (The Netherlands), called Humans, Animals and Nature: A Sustainable Relationship? Organized by the Maastricht University Graduate School of Sustainability Science (MUST) and its Founding Director professor of “Sustainable Development” Pim Martens. The symposium will feature con […]

On Monday 16th of June 2014 the seminar Animal behaviour, cognition & welfare will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel. The 1-day seminar is organised by AnimalConcepts in collaboration with the Institute for Animals in Philosophy and Science and is hosted by Tel Aviv University. How much do we really know about animal minds? How […]

Saturday 8 February ape expert dr. Esteban Rivas and dolphin expert dr. Justin Gregg will organise the third and last seminar in the Apes & Dolphins Seminar Series at the Free University in Amsterdam. This time the seminar will be wholly dedicated to the moral status of great apes and dolphins. Are they morally special […]

In 2014 the Institute for Animals in Philosophy and Science is organising for the first time Animal Lectures in English for an international audience. In these lectures psychologist and philosopher dr. Esteban Rivas will present up-to-date reviews of the current scientific state of affairs regarding the consciousness, emotions, and intelligence of nonhuman a […]

On Saturday, February 8th, 2014 the third and last seminar in the Apes & Dolphins Seminar Series will take place in Amsterdam. This time the seminar will be dedicated to the moral status of great apes and dolphins. Are apes and dolphins morally special? Or maybe they’re not? Join ape behavior expert Esteban Rivas from the Institute for […]

Finally some time for a new vegan recipe! I have had many requests for a vegan recipe of a typical Dutch soup: split pea soup! A vegan split pea soup is in fact really easy to make, by simply leaving out meat from traditional recipes. Split pea soup is delicious now we’re in Fall again […]

This is a great vegan recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I found it on the website VegKitchen, which has loads of good recipes for the holidays and beyond. I’m making this recipe for Christmas this year. It’s based on the stuffing meat-eating Americans put into a dead turkey, but for this recipe you don’t have […]

I was surfing the net recently for vegan pasta recipes and found this delicious recipe for pasta with a tomato and capers sauce. It’s from the German website Veganwelt by Ullrykka, which contains over 2,000 vegan recipes. Click here to go to her website. I have adapted her recipe for this sauce only slightly. The […]

I recently found a very appetizing looking recipe on VegWeb.com by Caroline Disko from Ontario, Canada, for pasta shells with walnut stuffing. My mouth was watering when I read the recipe, so I decided to make it myself. However, I could not find the jumbo pasta shells for the original recipe anywhere here in Amsterdam […]

One of my favourite foods is Indian food. Given the hinduistic tradition of the subcontinent, the Indian kitchen contains many vegan and vegetarian recipes. This recipe is for an eggplant curry, spicy and tasty. Ingredients (for 2 persons) 2 large eggplants 1 onion 2 tomatoes 1 red bell pepper 2 red or green chilli peppers […]